In Alexandria, the number of working linear machines are limited with overcrowded waiting list which lead to prolongation of overall treatment time and delay in starting radiotherapy. Providing the available data, Principle investigator is conducting this study in parallel with fast forward protocol to provide an alternative cost effective approach to patients.
The rationale behind hypofractionation depends mainly on the alpha beta ratio (/) and the overall treatment time. In Breast cancer the ratio is around 4 which is slightly lower than other tumors such as head and neck. The lower the ratio the higher the dose per fraction is needed to compensate slower proliferating tumors. Also, the overall treatment time could affect the local recurrence of breast cancer which is increased with long duration of treatment.
This study will include at least 100 patients with non metastatic histologically proved breast cancer who are indicated for adjuvant radiotherapy.
The patients will be randomized into two arms:
- Control arm: will include 50 patients who will receive standard 40.05 Gray (2.67 Gy/fx) over 15 fractions with or without boost over 3 weeks biologically effective dose (BED) for early and late effect equal 50.74.Gy10 and 75.69 Gy3 respectively.
- Experimental arm: will include 50 patients who will receive 26 Gray (5.2 Gy/fx) over 5 fractions over 1.5 weeks with BED for early and late effect equal 39.52 Gy10 and 71.07 Gy3 respectively
